Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Flightstats.com: Alaska, United and US Air Led in Ontime Performance For July

[Chart: Flightstats.com]

Among the major airlines, Alaska, United and US Airlines racked up the best on-time performances in July, according to the extremely useful flight-data Web site Flightstats.com

While Hawaiian Airlines (which doesn't have that far to go, and not a lot of places to go to) predictably led all North American carriers in on-time arrival performance again in July, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways had the best performance among the majors, says Flightstats. Overall, July's on-time arrival average was 75.92% slightly lower than in 2009.

Portland, Oregon's PDX airport had the best on-time departure performance among major North American airports. All of the top 10 managed to get over 80% of their flights off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departures against an average for the group of 71.51%.

New York's JFK reopened a runway on June 29th after a four month closure. Despite the reopening, JFK's on-time departure performance fell from 58.23% in June to 55.66% in July. The five North American airports with the lowest on-time departure performance in July were:

Major Asian Airlines Performance ReportNo surprises in Asia as Japanese airlines continued their domination of the top five with Bangkok airlines in the third spot. The Asian carriers with the best on-time arrival performance in July were:

Note: Our coverage of Asian carriers is limited due to a lack of available data sources. We listed only those carriers for which we have statistically significant gate departure and arrival information. If you don't see your airline listed here or would like to see a more complete representation of your data, please contact meara@flightstats.com to arrange for a data exchange.

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About These ReportsThese on-time performance reports for worldwide carriers and airports are generated from FlightStats Analytics.

Flightstats says:

"We track the performance of over 150,000 flights per day, archive the data for analysis and publication, and provide real time flight status to millions of travelers world wide each day.

In contrast to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) on on-time performance which are filed with the BTS by the largest US airlines, we gather it ourselves in real time and archive the data for analysis and reporting. This enables us to cover a larger list of airlines and airports and to issue reports within a few days of the end of the reporting month.

* BTS reports only on US airlines and airports. FlightStats gathers data world-wide
* BTS airline performance reports are based upon data reported by 19 US airlines, 18 of which constitute 1% or more of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues. FlightStats reports cover 45 US airlines and are based upon data gather in real time from a variety of sources including the US FAA, airlines reservation systems, direct feeds from airlines and airports.
* BTS US airport performance reports are based upon information provided by the 32 U.S. airports that account for at least 1 percent of the nation's total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements. FlightStats equivalent reports are based upon archived real-time data covering the top 40 (i.e. busiest) North American airports.
* Both BTS and FlightStats reports include information on the percentage of flights that arrived on time, were cancelled, were diverted. FlightStats breaks down the delays into 3 categories - late (15-29 minutes late at the gate), very late (30-44 minutes), and excessive (> 44 minutes). BTS simply reports that a flight is late (15 minutes or more).
* FlightStats has more current data based upon real-time reporting. BTS data is published approximately 5 weeks after the close of a month as it relies on the airlines to file historical reports.
* BTS also reports on baggage issues, passenger numbers, customer complaints and the causes of flight delays. FlightStats does not."

Bio

Joe Sharkey's work appears in major national and international publications. For 19 years until 2015 he was a weekly columnist for the New York Times. He is now a weekly travel and entertainment columnist with the global website Travel.Buzz, as well as an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, He has written five books, four non-fiction and a novel, one of which is in development as a movie. Previously, he was an assistant national editor at the Wall Street Journal and a reporter and columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
On Sept. 29, 2006, he was one of seven people on a business jet who survived a mid-air collision with a 737 over the Amazon. All 154 on the 737 died. His report on the crash appeared on the front page of the New York Times and later in the Sunday Times of London magazine.
He and his wife Nancy (who is a professor of journalism at the University of Arizona) live in Tucson with horses and parrots. He is working on a new novel about an international travel writer who hates to travel.
"JoeSharkey.com" is Copyright (c) 2006-2015 by Joe Sharkey.